Church Street (Manhattan)

Church Street is a short, but heavily travelled, north-south street in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its southern end is at Trinity Place, of which it is a continuation, and its northern end is at Canal Street.

Trinity Place begins at Battery Place and runs uptown, passing west of Trinity Church, the Trinity and United States Realty Buildings and Zuccotti Park. It then forms the southern part of the eastern boundary of the World Trade Center site before becoming Church Street, which continues as the eastern boundary. A few blocks before Canal Street, Church Street connects to the southern end of Sixth Avenue, with a roadway branching off Church Street. When not obstructed by construction on the World Trade Center site, Trinity Place, Church Street, and Sixth Avenue form a continuous northbound four-lane through-route from Lower Manhattan to Central Park.

Church Street is named after Trinity Church, an historic Gothic-style cathedral on Broadway at Wall Street, Extended in 1784, Church Street was in existence as early as 1761. Part of the street was owned by the church, but was given to the city in 1804.[1] Trinity Place is also a namesake of the church, being named so in 1834, prior to which it was known at various times as "Lumber Street" and "Lombard Street".[2] Prior to 1869, the south end of the street was at Fulton Street, three blocks north of Trinity Place;[3] then, over several years, a connection was cut through those blocks, both streets were widened, and Trinity Place was extended south to Morris Street. The work, plagued by delays and, allegedly, corruption, was completed by the end of 1872.[4]

Near Rector Street, Trinity Place passes under the Trinity Place bridge. Completed in 1989, the bridge is a private elevated walkway connecting the rear side of Trinity Church to its parish house across Trinity Place.